Friday, August 12, 2011

Been a while! Lots of changes have been going on since school let out...but I'm finally bringing it all back together!!! And I have plans lol...hopefully now I can get back to keeping up with everyone...one of the things I've really missed over the past few months has been not only doing more art but seeing everyone else in action for inspiration...

Saturday, June 04, 2011

I spend a lot of time teaching the students about the art of refinement. This year I helped students follow the creative process to design templates to redraw in Illustrator. They often had good core ideas but weren't seasoned enough to really see what I was pushing them to...I get excited when I see the base potential there but the struggle is to get them to realize what they have. It was also their first Illustrator attempt and the tools can be clumsy until you get used to them. So after the students finished I took several templates to show them how just little tweaks here and there can make a world of difference. Too often they are satisfied with very 'raw' work. The purpose of this wasn't to embarrass the students but really an attempt to say 'you have it...now you just have to polish it!"

The only problem with being done with the school year is I still wake up at 6am...and there aren't even any good cartoons on at that time...It was a weird year...but at least now I can get on blogger...

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

My apologies for not being able to comment on others work the past bit...unfortunately filters are screwed up at work which has made it pretty difficult to post and comment...but I can still stalk and view...if you haven't viewed Dan vs. on the HUB then you probably should try to watch Dan vs. Technology...it is one of the better ones and funny for a variety of reasons...Unlike Dan vs. Art...which really was terrible...

On a related note...one of my students asked if my cartoons were about them...my official policy is that all works created are fiction...any similarities to actual persons or events is purely coincidental...purely coincidental...

Thursday, April 28, 2011

We actually got to print these off on a large format printer today...turned out pretty nice...

Here are the mask files.Clearly I had to change the guy mask color but I blame the outrageous color shift on photoshop...Not sure why a document from illustrator won't keep colors intact when x-ferring to pshop...My quick fixes for printing didn't work out with these colors and when printed from photoshop the items looked like they had sat in a sunny window for a month...Illustrator printing='d perfect.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

In West Virginia if you are REALLY poor you have a bicycle up on blocks in the front yard rusting down instead of an automobile...either that or you are trying to make the rest of the folk think you are an athlete...

Being from WV I can make these claims and give you permission to laugh...it could probably hit home to some Kentucky or Georgia people as well...but they probably don't find it as funny...

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

This will be the first year that we are doing a gallery show...usually we are pretty pooped from dealing with portfolios...but the opportunity came up so we're giving it a shot...not the strongest class but they do have some good work...so we'll see how it goes...I'm excited and hope it works well for them.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Meeting day at school...so it was drawing time...the original idea was just the blank vast distance between the bed and the alarm clock and what a terrible journey it is each morning...but that wasn't an accurate representation of my room...vast or empty...plus I had another hour and a half to kill whilst listening to our guest speaker...

Friday, April 15, 2011

(click to enlarge...and then you might have to click again to bump it up one more time...had to do the critter a bit smaller to fit the scene in....)

After doing the sea monster one I figured I would do another one for the IF topic...there's a bridge at the local community college that I snapped a pic of and figured this would be a nice place to throw in a hobo critter. I saw a post on a portal a few years ago where people were putting drawings in everyday settings but can't recall what it was...because I'm getting old...and my mind is bad.

Monday, April 04, 2011

It was funnier in my mind...I think it had to do with coming off a spring break where the average temperature was 33 degrees...I'll try to do better next time...Larry is the head on the far right just in case it was eating you up to know.

Friday, March 25, 2011

When I was little I had lots of monster toys...I had the Kraken from Clash of the Titans (the tail and flippers ALWAYS fell off when you played with it)...Godzilla with shootable fist (his tail always came off too...and his toenails were broken pretty easily) and my favorite of all time...especially because it held together really well...Rodan...I'm not sure when exactly it disappeared but it had flapping wings, a mouth you could open and close by a switch on the neck...and real grasping action claws...being I couldn't think of anything funny (which is often what I hear when I do draw something with that intent) I decided to look my toy up and do a quick sketch...It's hard to believe that I thought it looked so cool back in the day...now it just seems like a bad plastic muppet to me. The good news is if you are a kid nowadays and aren't sucked into video games 24-7 there are lots and lots of really well designed and manufactured toys out there. Check out the Gremlin toy on this page and watch the video on the air sharks at the very top...

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A poster I did for a guy I work with...I think they get together and shoot things...while playing music...and eating hog...I hope I didn't misunderstand and this is really some kind of black tie event or I did this all wrong...

Friday, March 11, 2011

"Excuse me...could one of you gentleman direct me to the location of the Vegan Rally?"

Earlier when I thought I only had 10 minutes I did a poorly drawn cartoon with the Kool-Aid Man attacking kids at a party and was going to title it "Stir Crazy"...you know because you stir kool-aid...and in essence you figure that would effect his brain since the fluid somehow has to relate to internal organs...somehow...but then I found out I had 25 minutes so I could think of a better yet equally dumb and poorly rendered idea without having to continue drawing running and screaming kids...

So I thought about 'stirring up trouble'...and then I thought...vegan walking into a hunting lodge...and then I thought...that guy would get fried...and hey...you use vegetables in a stir fry...and then I thought about what I was going to get for lunch...and it has been all down hill every since...

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

You might say that isn't a very good attempt at a sheep disguise...I'm afraid it doesn't take much anymore...I could give you some crazy statistics and evidence but I'll just leave it at this...
"My people perish from a lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Saturday, March 05, 2011

A while back I did a ptero head and had plans for doing a large new pic...

I did lots of body sketches and it took me a while to try and figure out what I wanted to do. I even did a maquette with biohazard trash-bag wings to try to figure out how the wings would go as they were folded in certain positions.

Of course because it wasn't painful enough trying to finish up my large styraco rendering in pointillism...I almost went for graphite...and then almost went for colored pencil...but I enjoyed doing the stego head so much that I decided to go for pointillism again...the board size is the same size as the styraco and I do have the entire body sketched out at but I need to work on the scenery. I like it so far and I'm glad I decided against the turtle and went with the octopus. I did do turtle drawings but it just looked a bit less fluid and forced...so far so good.

And of course here is the progress made from last time...I did get started on the water which seems to be turning out okay. I do have more background work to straighten out and I'll have to go over the entire body and head to adjust values...and I added some elements in the extreme foreground. Estimated finished date...June 15th...of 2024...

Friday, February 18, 2011

After I do my pointillism items I like to color them after I've made prints. Our new printer lets me run through watercolor and heavier stocks of paper...which allows me to print the original size of the work. In times past I had to shrink everything down to fit 8.5x11...not anymore! And as mentioned...even better...I can run through much higher quality paper...I do have prints of this as well as my oviraptor from earlier for sale...you can see that info here

I recently moved to a new apartment and have been surprised at the large number of cats...I've counted 6 'regulars' to this point...and not just any cats...but all of them are very large...and they are always drooped over railings with flaps of skin and fat acting as a grip. One particularly large feline that hangs directly over where I walk I nicknamed 'Layers'...because he's got them.

On a seemingly unrelated note...I'm a school teacher...and as most folks know school teachers often help out of pocket with supplies...I demand a lot out of my students because I know what they are walking into as they shift into college...and I understand that they sometimes have less freedom to go out and get items they might need for projects...I want them to have the best shot at scholarships possible because there are times that is the only way they will be able to get their foot in the door for college. That might mean buying actual art supplies or even driving around and searching for props...one of the funner ones was driving around to every goodwill and thrift store within a 3 hour radius to find a certain shirt logo...To help with this I am selling some of my stuff or creating some work specifically to sell. If you wouldn't mind on occasion pop on over to my Blankenstine Is a Sellout blog and see if there might be something you like. Or if you've seen anything I've done in the past you liked I might be able to recreate or even sell the original (provided it hasn't been promised to my own kids).

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I had this big running deal making fun of myself and how when I ride a bike in 100 degree weather I barely sweat...go the gym barely sweat...play basketball with my screaming savages barely sweat...but if I sit at home on my couch and draw I look like I've been in a swimming pool...but I figured that would be TMI...I blame this sketch on froggie and her 'draw a shape and then turn it into a person idea...so yell at her if you so feel inclined...but it is a fun exercise...and she's a great artist...and really funny with her big stories that go with her posts...

Monday, January 31, 2011

I finished this item up a few days ago...I had done some head sketches a while back but didn't really like how they had turned out. A stego head isn't nearly as exciting as some of the other dino heads out there. So the trick was trying to find a way to make a rather boring 'why do it' sketch turn into something that pulled off halfway decent. There are a couple of small things here or there I'm not happy with but I like the redesign much better. Now I have to figure out how the new printer works so I can run some of these on card stock and throw in some color....

Friday, January 21, 2011

Inservice day...which meant meetings...which meant checking IF and cutting loose...we actually had lots of good discussion today...I had another 'art person' grouped in which meant we could go on the offensive vs the other 30...they never stood a chance...

Sunday, January 09, 2011

The final painted pig...I ran into a couple of problems that diminished the quality of the paint job...besides my lacking capability...that always goes without saying...so if you are reading this and know some insights, please clue me in. I had many panicked moments wishing I had just left it unpainted...and part of me still feels that way.

First thing I did was spray a primer down on certain parts. The primer never really dried all the way...I thought it might have had to do with the humidity levels but after placing it at multiple locations it still remained tacky. I believe people usually use acrylic when painting sculpy but thought I might have better luck trying modeling paints.

After waiting for it to dry I went ahead and used spray paints to set base coats...which those too after over a month are still a bit tacky. Not tacky like wearing a 1970's type shirt to a formal dinner event...but not dry tacky.

I painted individual parts with the small bottles of paint, which some are dried and some not.

Finally, because everything was glossy I threw on some flat clear-coat hoping to knock the sheen down a bit...and hoping it would help it to dry. I don't know why I thought that...but I think it knocked parts of it down a bit too much. To restore the shine to eyes and teeth I slathered on some gloss nail polish clear-coat.

So I guess it is kind of done...now I just have to see how many months it takes to dry and then figure out where I'm going to put it.